If you are still running Exchange Server 2003, then you need to have to speedy track your Workplace 365 migration, because Exchange 2003 stopped getting supported by Microsoft in 2014. What is more, most Exchange Server 2003 systems are operating on Windows Server 2003 and this will also no longer be supported by Microsoft following June 2015. These two events mean your system will be increasingly open to external hacker attacks as security breaches are no longer becoming fixed by Windows updates.
In addition, unless you have moved your server to a virtual atmosphere sometime more than the final handful of years, it is incredibly probably that your physical file server is also out of warranty, running gradually, nearing its disk capacity and beginning to endure reliability challenges.
Migration from Exchange 2003 to Workplace 365 can still be safely completed, nevertheless there is normally an additional issue to be overcome regarding Microsoft Outlook. A lot of organizations that are operating Exchange 2003 are also operating Office 2003. The great news is that moving to Office 365 presents a fantastic opportunity to also replace Office 2003 by picking an Office 365 program that incorporates Office 2013 – for instance the Workplace 365 Organization Premium program.
The poor news is you have a chicken and egg predicament simply because Workplace 2003 in common – and Outlook 2003 in particular – does not function with Workplace 365. This implies that during the migration approach you have to determine in between upgrading your e mail technique 1st, and then not being capable to access it until you’ve updated all the computer systems to a later version of Workplace (at least office 2007). Or, you upgrade all the computers to a newer version of Office 1st, and then do the migration of Exchange Server to Workplace 365.
Whichever system you choose, there will be a period of time when customers are stuck in no man’s land – they won’t be capable to access their email server from their version of Outlook. So a selection have to have to be made – is it very best to upgrade Office initially, or is it ideal to upgrade the e mail server 1st? True globe practical experience shows that it is most effective in every circumstance to upgrade to Workplace 365 initially and then upgrade Office 2003 customers to Workplace 2013. Here’ Sharepoint employee directory to prove this point:
Corporation A has 20 employees with 19 users running Outlook 2010 on their computer systems and with only one user running Outlook 2003. It would be greatest to migrate the e mail server to Workplace 365 1st, for the reason that only the one user will not be in a position to access the new e mail server till their version of Office gets upgraded. And it need to take only an hour or so to get that user’s laptop upgraded to Workplace 2013.
Organization B also has 20 staff, but in their case 19 customers are on Office 2003 and only 1 is on say Office 2010. At initial glance this appears like a issue – if the Exchange 2003 Server is migrated to Office 365 1st then the 19 staff won’t be in a position to access their emails till the computers have Workplace 2013 installed. And conversely, if the 19 computer systems are updated to Workplace 2013 initially, they won’t be capable to access their emails till the Workplace 365 migration process has been completed. Thankfully, in this case there is a really superior interim answer – customers can make use of OWA (Outlook Web Access) to access their emails via the browser until their computer systems are updated to Office 2013. Certainly, it will also be probable for them to now have access to Office 365 e-mail on a range of smartphones and tablets they might currently have like iPhones, iPads, Windows mobile devices and Android devices.
Performing migrations to Workplace 365 from later versions of Exchange are a lot less complicated to action, but with a effectively-designed scoping plan that considers the implications of old versions of Office, the Exchange 2003 migration process can nevertheless be performed in a timely and price-effective fashion.
It may perhaps nicely be that the greatest way to assure your organization of a prosperous Office 365 migration from Exchange 2003 is to use the services of a Microsoft Companion that has Workplace 365 certifications and true-world encounter in performing Office 365 migrations.